AJAX completes live firing milestone

The Army’s new Armoured Fighting Vehicle, AJAX, has successfully completed its early live firing test programme at a range in mid-Wales.

The 40mm stabilised cannon and chain gun was fired while the vehicle was static, and is being used to de-rick the formal firing programme that is due to take place later this year. The test was performed by the General
Dynamics-UK and Lockheed Martin-UK and observed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and is the first time the weapon has been fired while fitted to the AJAX platform.

The senior requirements manager for the AJAX Programme, lieutenant colonal David Cathro, said: “This a great achievement for the programme. The challenges in getting to this point should not be underestimated and today is the result of a lot of hard work by General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, CTAI, DE&S and the Army. Seeing the firings today gives us confidence that the Army will receive this battle winning and transformational capability on time and to budget.”

The next test firing is planned for later this year and will involve a fully instrumented vehicle, before progressing to manned firing in early 2017.